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This post from a couple of years back gives some excellent advice to anyone starting out in the SH genre.
http://superheroineforum.com/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=14328Superman246o1 wrote:Dear New Producer,
Thank you for your interest in the genre. It's good to have new talent that can offer us exciting and different takes on this particular fantasy. And of course, this will hopefully become a lucrative venture for you. You want our money, and many of us want to give you our money. Presuming, of course, that we get what we want in the deal.
I worry, however, that some new producers don't fully understand what the Superheroine genre is about. That's not necessarily a bad thing; it is a rather unique fetish. Nevertheless, it can be problematic: producers want to devote their limited time and resources towards making a product that will sell well, and customers want to devote their limited funds towards buying products that they will enjoy the most.
That's why I'm here to help.
I offer, free-of-charge, my expertise as an aficionado of all things involving Superheroines. Over the past fiften years, I have collected – one at a time – 65,851 images, stories, videos and even soundbytes featuring Superheroines. I have spent thousands of dollars purchasing videos, acquiring rare comics, and buying high-quality costumes for girlfriends to wear. Now that I think about it, I am a more qualified expert on the topic of Superheroines than on any subject that I studied in college or undertaken professionally. Many would say that's pathetic. I would say that's pathetic. But I'd say that also makes me an expert.
“An expert what, exactly?”
I am not writing this to target any single producer. My intent is not to insult anyone, and if anything I write below seems offensive, please accept my sincere apologies. I have not polled any other customers on their thoughts, and they are more than welcome to disagree with me in the comments below. But I freely offer the three key insights that you will need to make me give you absurd amounts of my hard-earned cash. Take it as you will.
1) Know Your Source Material
Are you producing movies like this because you honestly love the genre, or simply because you see an underserved niche that you can make a profit off of? Both are perfectly legitimate reasons to work in the business, but if it's the latter, that's going to affect the quality of your work, unless you do your homework.
Many fans were first introduced to the genre via either the comics or the live-action adaptations thereof. Few of us spontaneously got into these videos without prior exposure to tales of superheroines fighting against the forces of evil. So the greater your understanding of the original source material is, the more you may appeal to your prospective customers. There are a number of new videos out that treat the superheroine genre as an amalgam of other fetishes, albeit in costumes. That is fine, but it's not going to inspire my patronage.
"You want to do what with my feet?"
If you're going to portray an existing superheroine, know that superheroine. What are her powers? Who are her enemies? How would she respond in a given situation? Why does she devote herself to fighting crime? The better your understanding of a superheroine, the more likely you'll be able to depict her accurately in a video designed to entice her fans. And the closer you can get to the source material that inspired our fantasies to begin with, the closer we may get to making a purchase.
Watch whatever existing material there is of the superheroine you're depicting. Buy a copy of the Supergirl film, or borrow the Wonder Woman TV series on Netflix, or watch Electra Woman & Dyna Girl on YouTube. Yes, these programs were designed for children, but they've also influenced the minds of the pervy adults some of those children turned into. I don't want to feel like I'm buying a movie of an average woman wearing a Batgirl outfit; I want feel like I'm buying a new episode of an actual series that features the new adventures of Batgirl. You generally can't replicate the budget of the original source material (although I suspect anyone with $50 could match the budget of the original Electra Woman & Dyna Girl show), but you can accurately replicate the core character of the Superheroine in question.
[youtube][/youtube]
A two-hour movie. A lifetime fantasy.
2) High Quality Outfits
Please bear in mind that the outfit for a superheroine is not a costume; it's a uniform. It's supposed to instantly identify the wearer as an extraordinary heroine, not look like a mass-produced Halloween costume. Clothes may make the man, but the leotard/bodysuit makes the superheroine. Please focus on what a difference a good or bad outfit may make. Contrast a picture of Lynda Carter as Wonder Woman...
Here to save the world!
...vs. a standard Wonder Woman costume for Halloween.
Here to get drunk at the party!
I can imagine what you're thinking. "But Superman246o1, the cheap Halloween costumes only cost $20, while a high-quality custom outfit costs $250 - $400. Why should I waste money on an expensive custom design when I can just get something from Wal-Mart?"
My answer is that it's never a waste to spend more money to bring in more customers; it's an investment. When I see an actress wearing a cheap costume in a preview for a genre video, I immediately lose interest in purchasing that video, and continue shopping with other vendors offering higher-quality videos. Someone wearing a superhero costume from Target isn't going to remind me of the original source material that inspired my interest [see Item 1 above]. Instead, it's going to suggest that the producer wasn't interested in making a decent video. And if the producer can't be bothered to make something good, why should I be bothered to buy it?
Meh.
Let's presume that you can buy a mass-produced Batgirl costume for $20, or a custom-tailored replica of Yvonne Craig's Batgirl bodysuit for $200. Sure, the former seems like a better deal. But if you're selling a Batgirl video with that costume, the latter bodysuit might attract more customers that want to relive the thrill of watching Yvonne Craig fight evildoers. If you're selling videos for $20, all it takes is a net of 10 additional customers to make up the cost of outfit. And if the great costume inspires even more people to buy the video that otherwise wouldn't, you're making a greater profit than you would have with the cheap costume. As a customer, I can vouch that the quality of the costume has often played a key role in my decision to make a purchase.
Much better.
If funds are limited -- and whose aren't these days -- you can also make a high-quality outfit yourself. Thousands of cosplayers do this on a regular basis each year, and they do it simply for their personal enjoyment. If recreational role-players can devote the time to making a high-quality outfit, so can a producer who is using the outfit in a for-profit venture.
Worth every penny.
3) Power and Peril
The eroticism of superheroines in peril is an unconventional fetish. It is, in some ways, both an empowering fantasy (focusing on heroic women who are more confident, capable and competent than any mortal man), and a misogynistic one (focusing on the aforementioned heroines being weakened and/or endangered). Often simultaneously. If you can reconcile and depict these otherwise antithetical concepts, you can make the perfect superheroine film.
"I can fly through space or lift a bus. But green rocks are tough to deal with."
It seems that a number of professionals who work in the fetish industry are used to depictions of women being denigrated from start to finish. Conversely, those that have worked in more dominatrix-oriented genres are familiar with women being domineering and controlling throughout the entirety of the encounter. Neither of these approaches will work well by itself in depicting a superheroine in peril. If she seems powerless or incompetent from the start, she's not a superheroine; she's just some bimbo in a Halloween outfit. And if she is in control of things throughout the video and never in danger, then there is no peril.
An important balance is to capture both of these aspects of the genre. Perhaps spend a quarter, a third, or even half of the video demonstrating that your superheroine is, indeed, super. It makes her more believable as a heroic character, and it has the added bonus of making the peril that much more thrilling. If the superheroine has already demonstrated that she has amazing skills and powers, a scenario where even she is overwhelmed becomes extremely exciting.
It's important to keep the ratio of the peril consistent with the powers of the superheroine in question. If you depict Wonder Woman shrugging off blows that would crush a normal person's bones early in the video, it's not going to seem particularly threatening later if the villain starts tickling her feet with a feather. There's no sense of "Oh God! How will she get out of this?!" There's only a sense of, "Oh. Well, here's a 17-minute foot tickling sequence for the tickle-fetishists. I guess I should have bought that video that [Rival Producer X] made instead."
For me, the perfect balance of both power and peril comes from the climax of the Supergirl film. Helen Slater's superheroine is a perfect icon: courageous, powerful, and fighting to save the world from destruction (make that two worlds, technically). If you haven't seen it lately, please watch the clip below, as the last showdown is depicted well. There are a few minor challenges that Supergirl has to stand up against, but she uses her powers and her conviction to defy the villainess. The major peril kicks in right as Supergirl seems to be her most confident. Note the change from 2:32 - 2:45 vs. 2:46 - 3:12. The tone of the film changes significantly, as Supergirl goes from being easily assured of her victory to being terrified by the monster that wants to destroy her. The highlight of the clip is the actual peril she suffers from 3:30 - 4:22. But the aforementioned reaction shot was almost equally enjoyable. If peril is the highlight, then the transition from confident and powerful to fearful and overwhelmed is the foreplay.
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I do not expect you to replicate the scale of that clip. But if you can capture its spirit, and you are/have an actress who can personify the essence of a superheroine, you will have my money for as long as you make videos.
I hope this helped. If it did, great; I'm going to be a future customer of yours. If it didn't, that's great too; I wish you all the best in the genre. Either way, thank you for your interest in making superheroine films. It is an industry that I love, and I hope you love working in it.
Who knows, the Supergirl alter ego may ALWAYS wear pantyhose… hmmm…. anyone else? Do we all want 1984?? 
Watch all of W.O.N/MMP's Superheroine World Underwater Peril Fan Film Series, only on W.O.N Cinema YouTube Channel: 
